Some observations about Storage
Last minute complications mean that I cannot speak at today's "Queensland Smart Energy Summit" (with Jonathon Dyson being an even better substitute). Here are some of the observations I would have liked to discuss...
Areas of deeper analysis
More on those negative prices – how do contracts affect bidding behaviour?
Guest author Allan O'Neil provides this handy explainer on how generators’ contract positions affect their bidding decisions and can make negative spot prices pay off, at least in the short term. Very useful for...
Who’s responsible for those negative prices?
Rapidly growing solar PV output has been widely tagged as the cause of low and even negative prices in Queensland. But in any market it’s the behaviour of ALL participants that determines price outcomes....
The Fuel Mix supporting the NEM is at the start of a massive transformation
Two pages taken from our Generator Report Card following several different requests from people who attended different events recently where the Report Card was discussed.
Transitional challenges require greatly enhanced analytical capability (exemplified in MT PASA Rule Change proposals, for instance)
A few additional thoughts about proposed changes to the MT PASA process, informed by our conclusions in Theme 14 within Part 2 of our Generator Report Card.
5 FAQs we’re asked about the Generator Report Card (for discussion at AIE this evening)
We've been invited by the Australian Institute of Energy (AIE) to speak this evening in Sydney about some of the lessons learnt in the process of completing our Generator Report Card. Here's some context...
Initial thoughts and questions about last Friday’s under-frequency load shedding in Great Britain
Some brief data gathering and analysis, primarily because I could not resist the exploration, of what might have happened with the load shedding in the electricity grid across England, Wales and Scotland on Friday...
Calculated level of inertia in the South Australian grid, supplied by synchronous generation plant
Last week's notable under-frequency load shedding in Great Britain following what appears to be the loss of two generation units in quick succession prompts me to publish some of the analysis of aggregate levels...
Heightened Risk an increasing feature in the NEM these days…
A full page article in the FinReview today quotes a number of people (including our work in the Generator Report Card) speaking about heightened risk in the NEM. Coincident with this, we see another...
Two other opportunities to meet with us in Sydney during August, and discuss the Generator Report Card
Given the high level of interest in the Generator Report Card, both the Australian Institute of Energy and the Australian Energy Council have organised separate events (in Sydney in August) providing the opportunity to...
Navigating the grid – challenges for new solar farm operators
A synopsis of the presentation provided by guest author, Jonathon Dyson, at the Solar Asset Management conference earlier today in Sydney.
Which was that ‘mystery DUID’ that apparently ‘can’t stand the heat’*?
Returning to the challenge posed to readers in April 2019, to guess (or analytically determine!) which of the hundreds of units operating in the NEM showed such a severe limitation in output at high...
17-year trend of aggregated coal unit unavailability as from the Generator Report Card
Some excerpts from the Generator Report Card to sample some of the analysis we performed to assess various aspects of the 'dependability' of coal-fired power stations in the NEM. In this post we highlight...
Upcoming Q&A sessions on the Generator Report Card
Here's some initial details of upcoming informal Q&A sessions in Melbourne (on Tuesday next week!), followed by Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney - where we'd look forward to meeting with those interested in the Generator...
Five different aspects of assessing the “dependability” of coal-fired power (in the Generator Report Card)
The framework we used to analyse the extent to which coal-fired power is "dependable" in the Generator Report Card, and the extent to which it's been changing.
Some early comments made about the Generator Report Card
A summary of some comments that we've seen in the first few days of the Generator Report Card
Generator Report Card released (on Friday 31st May 2019)
For those who have already pre-ordered their copy, this is how you can access - and for those who have not, but would like a copy, this is how to arrange this as well.
A page for each DUID in (Part 3 of) the Generator Report Card
Worth sharing the level of detail we're going to, in Part 3 of the Generator Report Card (5 parts in total), where we have assembled millions of data points into a single page summarizing...
Degradation of performance at high temperatures
We're taking a much, much deeper dive into generator performance at high temperatures (for all DUIDs operational across the NEM) to see how each one of them, individually, is affected by high temperatures. Guess...
Despite growing diversity of Large Solar farms (NEM-wide), large weather events still have major dampening effects
Sharing a trend of daily capacity factor across all Large Solar plant (post commissioning) in the NEM (preliminary analysis for our Generator Report Card).